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John Percy Vyvian Dacre Balsdon and Andrew Lintott

Acta means ‘the things that have been done’ and has two specialized, overlapping senses in Roman history; one is a gazette, the other is official acts, especially of an emperor.The Acta diurna were a ...
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Acta means ‘the things that have been done’ and has two specialized, overlapping senses in Roman history; one is a gazette, the other is official acts, especially of an emperor.The Acta diurna were a gazette, whose publication dates from before 59 bce (a 2nd-cent. bce example of these is quoted by Renaissance antiquarians but its authenticity has been doubted); from the late republic onwards it recorded not only official events and ceremonies, but lawsuits and public speeches, and was read both at Rome and in the provinces (Asc. 30–1 C; Tac. Ann. 16. 22). The Acta senatus (or Commentarii senatus) constituted the official record of proceedings in the senate, first published in 59 bce (Suet. Iul. 20). Under the Principate a senator was selected by the emperor to be responsible for the record (Tac. Ann. 5. 4). The proceedings were available to senators but *Augustus forbade their wider publication (Suet. Aug.Less

Peter Sidney Derow

The title of one of a pair of senior Roman magistrates, elected by the centuriate assembly (see centuria) to hold office for eighteen months. Although they lacked *imperium and the right to an escort ...
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The title of one of a pair of senior Roman magistrates, elected by the centuriate assembly (see centuria) to hold office for eighteen months. Although they lacked *imperium and the right to an escort of lictors (*lictores), the censors possessed considerable authority and influence owing to the range of their responsibilities. The censorship was established in 443 bce as a civil magistracy with the primary function of making up and maintaining the official list of Roman citizens (census), previously the task of the consuls (see census). The censors were initially exclusively patrician. One of the leges Publiliae of 339 required that at least one of the censors be a plebeian (see publilius philo, q.), but not until 131 bce were both censors plebeian. The office came to be regarded as the highest position in the *cursus honorum and to be held as a rule only by ex-consuls.Less

Piero Treves, Cyril Bailey, and Andrew Lintott

(1) Magisterial or priestly: a board of officials. (2) Private: any private association of fixed membership and constitution (see clubs, roman).The principle of collegiality was a standard feature of ...
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(1) Magisterial or priestly: a board of officials. (2) Private: any private association of fixed membership and constitution (see clubs, roman).The principle of collegiality was a standard feature of republican magistracies at Rome. Although in some cases the common status of colleagues did not exclude seniority (originally one *consul may have been superior to the other and the consuls as a whole were senior colleagues of the *praetors), the principle in general was to avoid arbitrary power by ensuring that every magistracy should be filled by at least two officials, and in any case by an even number. They were to possess equal and co-ordinate authority, but subject to mutual control. Thus a decision taken by one consul was legal only if it did not incur the veto (*intercessio) of the other. This principle led to alternation in the exercise of power by the consuls each month. Under the Principate emperors might take as a colleague in their tribunician power (see tribuni plebis) their intended successors, who in many cases were co-emperors.Less

Graham Burton

Conventus, ‘assembly’, is technically used(1) for associations of Italians abroad;(2) for provincial assizes.(1) By the early 2nd cent. bce Italians (especially in the east) united for religious and ...
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Conventus, ‘assembly’, is technically used(1) for associations of Italians abroad;(2) for provincial assizes.(1) By the early 2nd cent. bce Italians (especially in the east) united for religious and other purposes under elected magistri. In the late republic these associations (which came to be called conventus civium Romanorum) often gained a position of great political importance locally; the governor would rely on them for service on juries and on his council (consilium) and for advice on local conditions. In the Caesarian and Augustan period such associations often formed the nucleus for the foundation of new colonies and municipia civium Romanorum. Under the empire these associations sometimes passed decrees together with the Greek city authorities; in some areas they came to be organized under curatores. In the long term with the spread of *Romanization, especially in the west, these associations disappeared.(2) In most provinces, by the late republic, assizes (where the provincial governor held court) were held in fixed centres. Under the Principate the status of assize centres became a much sought after privilege, comparable to that of being a centre for the imperial (*ruler-)cult, which was in the gift of the emperor.Less

T. Corey Brennan

Down to the 3rd cent. bce there were perhaps few rules concerning the cursus honorum (career path) other than a requisite period of military service before seeking the political offices open to one's ...
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Down to the 3rd cent. bce there were perhaps few rules concerning the cursus honorum (career path) other than a requisite period of military service before seeking the political offices open to one's order, and some restrictions on iteration (cf. Livy 27. 6. 7). The senatorial establishment in the early 2nd cent. continued to support a loosely regulated cursus (Livy 32. 7. 8–12; cf. Cic. De or. 2. 261), surely because it facilitated use of private influence in elections. However, in or soon after 197, when the number of *praetors was set at six, a new law stipulated that all *consuls be ex-praetors. Henceforth, the basic progression was *quaestor–praetor–consul. If the tribunate of the plebs and the aedileship were held, the former usually and the latter always followed the quaestorship; the censorship traditionally went to ex-consuls (see aediles; censor; tribuni plebis). The cursus acquired further rigidity from the lex Villia annalis of 180 (see villius (annalis), l.Less

Andrew Drummond

Comprised bundles of rods, approximately 1.5 m. (5 ft.) long and of elm- or birchwood, and a single-headed axe; they were held together by red thongs and carried by *lictores. An iron set from a late ...
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Comprised bundles of rods, approximately 1.5 m. (5 ft.) long and of elm- or birchwood, and a single-headed axe; they were held together by red thongs and carried by *lictores. An iron set from a late 7th-cent. tomb at *Vetulonia may support the later tradition of their Etruscan origin. They were the primary visible expression of magisterial authority and hence the focus of a complex symbolism of the magistrates' legitimacy and of their powers vis-à-vis citizens, subjects, and each other. They were regularly regarded (and in the republican period used) as instruments of execution and by common consent the absence of the axe from the fasces of magistrates (other than dictators and triumphing generals) within Rome symbolized citizen rights of appeal (*provocatio) against capital coercitio. The alternation of precedence between the two *consuls was manifested in alternate ‘tenure’ of the fasces (although exactly what that implies is unclear), and the number of a magistrate's fasces depended on his rank: consuls (and in the republic proconsuls) had twelve (and hence also reputedly their predecessors, the kings); dictators probably had twenty-four, praetors and magistri equitum (see magister equitum) probably six.Less

M. I. Finley and Susan M. Treggiari

Emancipated slaves were more prominent in Roman society (little is known of other Italian societies before their enfranchisement) than in Greek city-states or Hellenistic kingdoms (see slavery). In ...
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Emancipated slaves were more prominent in Roman society (little is known of other Italian societies before their enfranchisement) than in Greek city-states or Hellenistic kingdoms (see slavery). In Greek the words apeleutheros/a and exeleutheros/a are used; in Latin libertus/a designates the ex-slave in relation to former owner (*patronus/a), libertinus/a in relation to the rest of society. In Greek communities, freed slaves usually merged with other free non-citizens. In Rome, the slave freed by a citizen was normally admitted to citizenship (see citizenship, roman). A slave might be released from the owner's control by a fictitious claim before a magistrate with executive power (imperium) that he/she was free (manumission vindicta), by being ordered to present himself to the censors for registration as a citizen (manumission censu: in these forms public authority attested citizen status and made it impossible for the slave to be a slave), or by will (manumission testamento, where implementation of the owner's command was postponed until he/she died and depended on acceptance of the inheritance and public validation).Less

Barry Nicholas

Infamia as a legal term embraces a variable number of disabilities (the common one being an incapacity to act or appear for another at law—postulare pro aliis) imposed in a ...
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Infamia as a legal term embraces a variable number of disabilities (the common one being an incapacity to act or appear for another at law—postulare pro aliis) imposed in a variety of circumstances. It is at root social, involving loss of fama (‘reputation’) or existimatio (‘good name’), but is given legal content by leges, senatus consulta, imperial constitutions, or by the praetor's edict in specific situations, such as condemnation in ordinary criminal prosecutions, condemnation in civil actions for delict and in other civil actions in which the defendant was guilty of a breach of faith (partnership, guardianship, mandate, etc. ), engaging in certain disreputable occupations. In classical law there is no single concept of infamia (or ignominia—the earlier word: see Gai. Inst. 4. 182), but in the law of Justinian (see justinian's codification) there appears to be an attempt to generalize.

Andrew Drummond

Under the Roman republic, if both *consuls died or left office (together with the remaining ‘patrician' magistrates) without successors appointed, the ‘auspices reverted to the ‘patres’. ...
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Under the Roman republic, if both *consuls died or left office (together with the remaining ‘patrician' magistrates) without successors appointed, the ‘auspices reverted to the ‘patres’. The latter, probably the patrician senators, selected one of their number as interrex. Interreges, who were of *patrician birth and usually ex-consuls, held office in succession, each for five days, with consular powers. Their principal duty was to supervise the election of one or both new consuls: the theory that they simply presented one or two names to the assembly for acceptance or rejection has not been substantiated. The name interrex supports Roman assumptions that the institution derived from the regal period (see rex) and was used to effect the choice of a new king, although some scholars dispute its regal origins or attribute it a sacral function then.

Andrew Dominic Edwards Lewis

Ius Latii, the Latin right, refers primarily to the legal status of those Latins (see latini) who after 338 bce shared the right of marriage (conubium) and commerce (*commercium) with Romans. Latins ...
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Ius Latii, the Latin right, refers primarily to the legal status of those Latins (see latini) who after 338 bce shared the right of marriage (conubium) and commerce (*commercium) with Romans. Latins settling in Rome acquired Roman *citizenship and vice versa. Those, whether from Rome or Latium, who settled in Latin colonies acquired coloniary Latin status, which, at least by the empire, differed from the wider Latin right in not permitting intermarriage. An entirely separate status of Junian Latinity (see latini iuniani) was created for certain categories of freed slave by a Junian law under *Augustus. Latin rights were conferred on many communities in Italy, Gaul, Spain, and Africa in the late republican period. It is clear that such communities were known as Latin *municipia (towns) into the imperial period but the practical consequences of Latin status remain obscure. Those who served as magistrates of Latin municipia acquired Roman citizenship from about 150 bce onwards.Less